


Raise hell

by GabrielReyesBottomLashes (spickerzocker)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Feels, M/M, Songfic, distrustful bastard!Gabe, nonlinear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-01 17:10:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14525361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spickerzocker/pseuds/GabrielReyesBottomLashes
Summary: I've been down with a broken heartSince the day I learned to speak.A songfic based off Raise Hell by Brandi Carlile





	1. I've been down with a broken heart

**Author's Note:**

> First work in this fandom.  
> [shifty eyes at that one thing from 1435 i still havent finished]  
> Enjoy.

_I've been down with a broken heart_  
_Since the day I learned to speak._  
_The devil gave me a crooked start_  
_When he gave me crooked feet._  
_But Gabriel done came to me_  
_And kissed me in my sleep,_  
_And I'll be singing like an angel_  
_Until I'm six feet deep._

Jack woke up slowly, with soft kisses being pressed against the side of his face. That in itself had been painfully scarce the last years, with the careful monitoring in the SEP. He knew he would be grinning like a loon the next few weeks, but he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.  
“Mm, Gabe.”  
“Good morning, chico de oro.”  
Jack turned around to fully face Gabriel and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose.  
“Hey there yourself, handsome.”  
Gabriel looked… good. Now that they didn’t have to anticipate mortar fire at all times of day and night, the dark smudges under his eyes had disappeared. His dark eyes were still half-closed from sleep and his legs were tangled with Jack’s.  
“Ugh, Jack. Morning breath.”  
“Shut up, babe.”  
They met in the middle, Gabe’s lips soft.  
Jack sighed. He was beginning to believe that the only reason Gabe agreed to giving up the title of Strike-Commander was to get out of all those meetings.  
“As much as I would love to have a lazy day with you, duty calls…”  
“Nope. Today is our day off.”  
“We can’t. Overwatch needs us- “  
“What Overwatch needs to do is to stay out of the way of my husbandly duties.”  
Jack tried to get up.  
“Adjustment to peace is-”  
Gabriel’s arms and legs wrapped around Jack’s body and limbs in a crushing bear hug.  
“- a difficult but necessary process, yes, yes, we all know.”  
“Gabe! You can’t just…”  
“I bet my ass I can. Also, I got Ana and Rein to cover for us today. Would be a shame if we were to interrupt Captain Amari running the new recruits raw, wouldn’t it?”  
Jack grinned at the thought of all the loudmouthed recruits being ground into the dust by 5’5 of hardass Egyptian sniper.  
“C’mon, Jackie-boy, it will be fun! We’ll laze around all day, make out like teenagers, maybe watch some stupid movies and make fun of them… Just couple things.”  
Jack finally relented.  
“Okay, okay. Anything you’d like to do first?”  
“You know how I love your voice.”  
“You wanna hear me sing?”  
Gabe nodded. Jack got up - no thanks to Gabriel, he loves the man but in the morning he is like a freaking octopus - and padded over to his battered guitar case. Snapping the clasps open, he pulled out a positively ancient guitar and his trusty tuner. Plucking the strings and adjusting them when they were off-tune, he let his mind wander to all the things his guitar had been with him. Through his closeted youth, the rift between his parents and him, the times when Gabriel had been injured and Jack had sat by his bedside trying to give him something to hang on to… Jack shook his head. Not now.  
“Any requests?”  
“Nah, just wanna hear you sing.”  
Jack cleared his throat, fingers plucking idly before they settled on a tune.  
“ _Grave digger,_  
_Grave digger,_  
_Send me on my way._  
_Release me to this earth,_  
_Within this shallow grave…_ “  
Gabriel grinned up at his husband, fingers idly toying with his ring.  
“Always so morbid,” he murmured before settling down to listen to Jack’s sleep-rough voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Jack sings at the end is [Grave Digger by Blues Saraceno](https://youtu.be/so2s-NZVXZA).  
> Thanks for reading, feel free to drop me a comment!


	2. I found myself an omen and I tattooed on a sign

_I found myself an omen and I tattooed on a sign_  
_I set my mind to wandering and I walk a broken line._  
_You have a mind to keep me quiet_  
_And although you can try,_  
_Better men have hit their knees_  
_And bigger men have died._

The shot had, ironically, opened her eyes. It had been the straw that had broken the camel’s back, as Jesse would say. Goodness, how she missed the little scoundrel. The shot had been her way out, the only one after a long while. She should be grateful, really.  
Ana peered down her scope, not even sweating despite her heavy trenchcoat. Thank goodness she had been able to snag one of the climate-controlled undersuits when Overwatch went down. Otherwise she might have had a lot to explain had anyone cared to analyze one of her sweatdrops. And Talon had been nothing if not thorough in their hunt.  
Movement. Ana hefted her rifle around with the deftness of a master. Three shots and the figure went down, unmoving. Two more figures stumbled out, both were downed with three shots each. Ana reloaded and pulled her rifle onto her shoulder. Time to move.  
Making her way down to the market, Ana easily blended in with the omnic population despite her faceplate being black glass instead of metal. By the time a group of uniformed men rounded the corner, searching for her she was already gone into a narrow alley. Still, it wouldn’t take them too long to find out where she had gone.  
A bright notification on her HUD momentarily caught her attention. Orange and light grey, tinted blue by her visor, but familiar nonetheless. Overwatch. High priority.  
“Overwatch recall”  
She felt as though she had been punched in the stomach. Overwatch. Her old family, for that was what it had been really been, being a place of sunshine and laughter before it all went down. Oh, and how it went down. Nothing but flames, rubble and dust. Gabriel had always had a flair for the dramatic. She knew Fareeha would go, but would Jesse? Of course he would, underneath that scruffy exterior was a boy whose idealism hadn’t been wiped out even by years of black ops. But what would she say to her children.  
Another Talon patrol turned the corner of the alley, but she was too slow to react. Distracted. A taser dart hit her in the stomach and she doubled over, stomach muscles clenching and dry heaving. Sentimental. She heard the mercenaries laugh about how they would have another one to watch their backs. _Foolish_.  
Anas fingers closed around one of her grenades. She didn’t have the leverage to break it by throwing. This would be unpleasant.  
Ana smashed her hand into the stone-paved street, the glass shattering and cutting through her glove. No matter. The ache in her stomach lessened considerably while the men around her began coughing. Ana spun around, taking each out with two shots of her rifle until she was alone.  
She smirked under her mask. Distracted, sentimental and foolish she may be, but she was still one of the best. Along with Jack and Gabriel, she had been the best the old Overwatch had to offer. And even they had never been able to take her down in a real fight without heavy injuries.  
Time to see if her best was still good enough for the new Overwatch.


	3. I'm gonna raise hell

_I'm gonna raise, raise hell_   
_There's a story no one tells_   
_You gotta raise, raise hell_   
_Go on and ring that bell_

Sombra awoke to the buzz of a notification running up her spine. Ah, her informant had finally replied. Good. Time to see if they had actually supplied the information she needed or if she had to apply a little more... pressure. Sombra smirked and waved her fingers to bring up her display. 

“Mierda fuck!” 

Sombra scrambled to turn the brightness of the display down, though it did not help her much and squinted blearily at the text. Why did she have to pick electric purple? What was wrong with a nice, dark red? No need to stab herself in the eyeballs every time she had to look something up. Jeez. This had better be worth it. 

Eyes skimming over the e-mail, Sombra grinned. Just what she had hoped for. Looked like she wouldn’t have to release any compromising photos. Yet. 

Pulling out her virtual keyboard, Sombra set to integrating the new information into her web. Someone had to expose The Eye. And after all, who could be a better candidate than the one who had already evaded them once? 

The organization had sounded superfluous at first. A sort of modern-day illuminati. What did the rich and influential need a secret society for when they could get away with their dirty business in broad daylight? But the more data Sombra gathered, the more sure she became of it. Things were off, clues that seemed innocuous didn’t add up to what they seemed to be. 

No matter.   
When the time came, she would let the whole world know.   
And billions of notification bells would usher in the beginning of a new age without The Eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone, probably: Gee El, three chapters in three days! That sure is more updates than you did before! I wonder how you do it!   
> My lying ass, having prewritten five chapters and not having to attend school: idk i just really connect with the story


	4. Chapter 4

_You came upon a lightning strike_  
_And eyes of bright clear blue_  
_I took a tie from around my neck_  
_And gave my heart to you._  
_I sent my love across the sea_  
_And though I didn't cry_  
_That voice will haunt my every dream_  
_Until the day I die._

Thunder rolled overhead as the recruits waited with their freshly assigned partners for their new bunks to be announced. Mother nature always had a sense for drama. 

Gabriel eyed the blond next to him. Of course they’d pair him up with him. Typical. 

Blue-eyed, wheat-blond, white bread, _chico de oro_ , John “Jack” Morrison from Indiana. Likes mashed potatoes, american football and country music. Thinks salt is a spice. Probably straight as the flagpole holding up the star spangled banner. 

Gabriel wanted to be mad at him. He really did. But so far John “Jack” Morrison had not given him anything to be mad about, not even on others behalf. Gabe may have been sort of an asshole, but he wasn’t about to go off on his partner of the next two years for nothing. 

No, it was better to wait for them to fuck up and then make them feel guilty. 

So when Jack turned to Gabriel with his hand outstretched and hope in his eyes, Gabriel smiled. He smiled the way he always smiled: Just a little too wide and full of teeth. 

They alway fucked up.

* * *

The first week of the SEP were less than unproblematic. Everyone was laid up in the medbay, hooked up to IV drips with scientists calling themselves doctors running tests and diagnostics. Gabriel saw neither hide nor hair of his new roommate and that was just fine. 

The following three weeks were flawless. Jack did his chores, washed his socks and stayed the fuck out of Gabriel's business. When Jack wasn’t training and adjusting to his changing body, he sat on his bunk and read. The few actual conversations Gabriel held with him he managed to be nothing but perfectly fine. 

Gabriel learned that Jack loathed beef stew. The particular combination of beef, carrots and potatoes made him gag and he’d rather go hungry. Gabriel wasn’t too fond of the mashed potatoes. Despite their calculated diets, they swapped.

After the three weeks, it was injection time again. All of it was state-of-the art and top-secret, so they were separated again. When Gabriel returned to their room without Jack it felt empty. Gabriel didn’t dwell on it. 

Gabriel learned that Jack actually favoured golf and had only joined the football team on his father’s insistence when Jack followed the occasional golf matches on the TV in the mess with rapt attention. Gabe nudged Jack with his elbow until he relented. 

Inject, adjust and train. Repeat. 

It became obvious now that Jack’s and Gabriel’s injection routines were radically different. Gabriel was often done within three days while Jack was stuck in the medbay for the whole week. It meant that Gabe had a few blissful days of quiet. That was just fine by Gabriel.  
Until it wasn’t. 

Gabriel dragged his feet as he slouched to his room. Training had been brutal and then some idiot had knocked over the tennis ball bin and pinned it on Gabriel so he had to pick all the balls up. After they rolled down the hill into the woods. One at a time. And he had to drag all the other equipment back inside. Even after it had started to rain. Also, he got settled with extra chores. To be fair, that may have been because he tried to talk back. 

He was still going to kill whoever got him put on toilet cleaning duty for the next three weeks. Gabe was willing to bet it was that idiot Nguyen. What a jerk. 

Gabe threw the door open, made two steps in and stopped dead in his tracks.  
Jack sat on his own bed, strumming a guitar. Apparently oblivious to Gabe’s return, he started singing again. 

“ _And I walked down into Mexico_  
_What I came for I think you know_  
_I take another life, it's all the same_  
_It's one more killing to the man that has no name_  
_It's one more bullet to the man that has no name_ ” 

Jack had a nice singing voice, just the right side of rough for country. 

Gabe must have made some noise because Jack turned around, his fingers stopping. 

“I’m so sorry you’re probably so tired, I just wanted to practise because I haven’t in ages and one of the nurses loaned me their guitar, I’ll get out of your hair in a sec,” Jack said, standing up. 

Waving his hand, Gabriel said, “Don’t worry about me. I’m so tired I could probably fall asleep to a drill sergeant screaming in my face. ‘S nice, besides,” and faceplanted onto his bunk without taking his boots off. He’d deal with the muddy covers in the morning. 

That night, Gabe drifted off to the sound of guitar strings and the soft sound of Jack’s voice. 

Gabriel learned that he loved Jack’s voice.

* * *

Jack was leaving. The asphalt of the takeoff strip was rough under Gabriels boots, reeking of petrol fumes. Archaic. 

“It’s not forever, you know,” Jack said. 

Gabriel forced himself to really look at Jack for the first time today. 

“That’s my tie.”  
“I know.” 

Blood red with little skulls and owls. They had been on a mission to somewhere or else, Had gone out, somehow ended up rifling through one of the messy stores. Slightly tipsy, just for laughs. Jack had called Gabriel over to look. Jack’s eyes were bright as he said “It suits you”. When Jack looped the tie around Gabriel’s neck, it may have been a promise.  
Gabriel loved that tie. 

When Gabe looked up at Jack’s face, Jack was smirking like he knew how much Gabe wanted to grab his tie and pull him down into a kiss.  
But they were in the open and with how advanced cameras were these days, they couldn’t afford it. Not now. Not yet. 

Jack’s fingerpads were rough against Gabriel’s chin as he tipped Gabe’s head up. 

“Hey now. I won’t be long.”  
Unspoken: We’ll be in Overwatch afterwards. Away from the SEP and the rules. 

Gabriel bit his lip, nodded. Didn’t look at Jack.  
Gabe heard Jack’s suitcase roll up into the plane.  
Just a few days.

* * *

Darkness. Gabriel shot up from the bed, clawing at his throat. Clawed gauntlets, half solid, half smoke tore at his flesh, releasing more smoke. He coughed up clumps of dead cells that had settled in his lungs. It burned, like the embers during the explosion had burned.  
Gasping for air, hands clenched in the sheets. Waiting for the room to stop spinning.  
Generic Talon barracks. The other three beds empty.  
Close to two in the morning. Well, he had managed to sleep for longer than usual. If it could be called sleep.  
Gabriel slumped back against the mattress, reeking of something sharper than human or even enhanced human sweat. Fingers itching to fiddle with a ring that had been gone for a long time.  
No, he wasn’t Gabriel anymore, he reminded himself. He was Reaper. Gabriel was dead, Reaper had killed him himself.  
Gabriel had loved Jack Morrison, but Jack Morrison had died along with him in the explosion. Out with a bang.  
Reaper couldn’t afford to love. Not right now. Not anymore.  
But he could still hear Jack’s voice singing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has come to my attention that I have promised angst and feelings and the first few chapters are nothing but fluff and comedy. I seek to rectify that.  
> The song is [The Pale Rider by The Heavy Horses](https://youtu.be/bdtx1nF-Ki0).  
> As always, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of it!


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm gonna raise, raise hell_  
_There's a story no one tells_  
_You gotta raise, raise hell_  
_Go on and ring that bell_

So this was how it would end. Last opportunity to get off before the train wreck to the point of no return.  
Gabriel stood bent over the table, examining the plan. Where they planted the charges, the detonation times. Looking for an error. Knowing there were none. Nonetheless looking, stalling.  
He could still give up. He could go to Jack, look him in the eyes and tell him about the lies of the UN, about the willful blindness threatening to consume all they had sacrificed so much for, about his own nigh-betrayal.  
But no, this was how it had to be. Jack would want to know when and where and why, all change would be hindered by miles upon miles of bureaucratic red tape. No. He couldn’t let them take this too. Overwatch had been blinded by its own splendor, unable to see that to fight the lawless you had to become lawless yourself.  
Gabriel shut off the holo-table, not even looking as it wiped all data. Not that it would be able to store data much longer. He left the dark room, hands on his holstered shotguns, Blackwatch fanning behind him. What was left of Blackwatch, anyway. McCree’s and Shimada’s places next to him were empty. It had stung, losing his closest, it really had.  
No matter.  
He had pleaded, shown Jack the evidence. Had received only excuses and incredulity.  
He hadn’t been able to move heaven.  
Gabriel unholstered his shotguns, switched off the safety. The weight comforting in his palms. At least they would always be by his side.  
Time to raise hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I've offically run out of prewritten chapters. Whee


	6. Chapter 6

_I dug a hole inside my heart_   
_To put you in your grave._   
_At this point it was you and me,_   
_And mama didn't raise no slave._   
_You took my face in both your hands_   
_And looked me in the eye_   
_And I went down with such a force_   
_That in your grave I lie._

“You what?”   
The blank disbelief in Jack’s eyes stung more than Gabriel expected. Still, he pressed on.   
“I just couldn’t watch you turn a blind eye to Talon tearing everything we fought and killed for! What the UN is doing isn’t keeping peace, it’s enabling criminals! I will not be complicit in the turning of a clumsy war machine on entire populations, on the off chance that they may harbor a handful of terrorists! We need other methods, with less red tape and corruption...”   
Jack cut him off,“So you will not stand for Talon tearing Overwatch down, but instead do it yourself? We could have talked about this, if you had evidence. But all you had were a handful of conspiracy blogs.”   
“It’s not my fault that they have made you blind!” Gabriel snapped, “I just can’t play the UN’s lapdog when there are things to be done!”   
“I’m sorry, ” Jack said.   
Gabriel blinked, caught off guard.   
“What?”   
“I vowed I would share my life with you, listen to you and have your six. I have failed you. I’m so sorry Gabe. If I had listened, this wouldn’t be happening. It’s all my fault. ”   
“Yes. It is,” Gabe said.   
“Can you forgive me?”   
“I don’t know. I can try.”   
“That’s more than I could ask for.”   
The sound of distant explosions and screaming interrupted the terse silence.   
“If we are to stand this through together, you’ll have to call your men back,” Jack said.   
“They’re not my men anymore.”   
“What?”   
“They’re mostly Talon at this point,” Gabriel explained, “Blackwatch being out of my control was the thing that tipped it over. If the ones closest to me were on their side, it was the right thing to do, right? Else I would have had to take down the closest thing to family I have. And with you growing more and more distant… it seemed like the right decision.”   
“Gabe…” Jack sounded pained, “what have you done?”   
“Explosive charges, from the outside in. The very last ones being in the walls of this room.”   
Another set of explosions, closer this time.   
“A minute after one of our heat signatures leaves this room, a bigger charge is set off that pulverizes everything in here. Make you leave, let you survive, frame you for it, ” Gabe said. It had been all that he had asked for. Gabriel still couldn’t hurt Jack, no matter how badly Jack had fucked up.   
“For all it’s worth, I’m sorry too,” said Gabriel couldn’t bring himself to look at Jack.   
“Gabriel,” rough, calloused hands cupped his face, “please. Look at me.”   
Finally, Gabe’s brown eyes met Jack’s blue.   
Jack said “You know more about the conspiracy than I do. And you have already made the most important step to uncovering it. Go on and tell the world.”   
He didn’t say “I love you too much.”   
He didn’t say “I can’t let anything happen to you.”   
He doesn’t have to.   
“I can’t…” Gabriel tried to argue. But Jack was stubborn as a mule when he wanted to. As stubborn as Gabe. The only reason the two of them had lasted that long, really. Both too bullheaded to let go of something that should have died a long time ago.   
“They’ll wonder where you are. Go.”   
Jack was right. Of course he was right. Stupid self-sacrificing boy scout with a hero complex. Believing in the best in people. Easy to manipulate.   
Didn’t mean it hurt any less.  
“I never meant for this to happen,” Gabriel said, backing away from Jack.   
“I know,” Jack said. Not breaking eye contact.   
Neither of them said “I love you.”   
They didn’t know if they could anymore.   
This time, Gabriel didn’t break eye contact with Jack. Even as he stepped over the threshold the flames engulfed them both, he looked firm into Jack’s baby blues.   
The last thing he realized before blacking out that Jack had never been meant to survive.

* * *

Waking up in a too hard hospital bed was too familiar. Made a man question his life choices, it really did.   
“Reyes. You’re awake.”   
As always, O’Deorain sounded like she was observing a mildly disinteresting science experiment. For a doctor, she had remarkably poor bedside manner. Why had he even hired her?   
What had happened didn’t hit him like a train. Instead, his memories came back in patches, like after a particular bad concussion.   
Sounds of walking down the hall, people in step. No jingling spurs or softly whirring servos at his back.   
Jack’s lips moving without sound. He looked sad, but determined.   
Gabriel reached for his ring. It was gone.   
Gabriel looked down at his hands.   
White as bone, black smoke rising from small wounds. Some of them opened and closed as he watched.   
“What have you done to me?” Gabe croaked. He could barely recognized his own voice. His lungs burned like the time he had smoked a whole pack of Jesse’s awful cigarillos just to spite him.   
“Angela Ziegler was so kind to... let us use her nanite technology. Permanently bonding it to a subject’s cell structure increases metabolic activity greatly. At least, from what we could gather before the previous test subjects cannibalized themselves into a liquid. However, you have already woken up, which puts you ahead of everyone else. Well done. It’s probably the SEP serum.”   
“Let me go.”   
“After the initial recovery period, there will be nothing binding you to our little organization. But I doubt that anyone else will be able to synthesize the needed booster shots to keep you from completely disintegrating. Now, your arm please. ”   
Gabriel stared at the ceiling as Moira tapped the scarred crook of his arm for a vein and wondered how he always managed to get trapped even worse when he tried to break free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! One more chapter to go!   
> As always, thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm gonna raise, raise hell_   
_There's a story no one's telling_   
_You gotta raise, raise hell_   
_Go on and ring that bell_   
_Go on and ring that bell_   
_Go on and ring that bell_   
_Go on and ring that bell_

They would have liked to be buried next to each other, Reinhardt thought.   
They weren’t.   
Reinhardt had already attended Morrison’s funeral. Too pompous, too loud, too many aggrandizing speeches and politicians who had hardly known him crying fake tears. Jack would have hated it. Would have called it a waste of money.   
Apart from Reinhardt, few actually attended Reyes’ funeral. The Catholic priest spoke empty words of comfort. Gabriel’s abuela had not been able to make it, the old guard dead or disbanded.   
Everyone kept telling Reinhardt it was not his fault. There had been nothing he could have done to prevent Reyes going off the rails like that.   
Reinhardt knew that too.   
_but if he had fought just a little harder, a little longer maybe they would have let him stay_   
He shook his head. He would not have been able to do anything. And guilt was so much worse when you were close.   
_just like Balderich, just like Ana, what is a Crusader if he can’t protect anyone_  
The priest wrapped up his speech and Reinhardt stood up. Soon he stood above the casket they all knew to be empty. Reinhardt gripped one of the straps and lifted the coffin with the hired undertakers. It was too light. Had there been a person inside, it would have been heavier.   
He would know, after all.   
Each step brought him closer to the dirt grave. Reinhardt’s good sunday shoes sunk into the wet clay soil. Reyes would have laughed at him when he sat in his hotel room, polishing them to a shine only to get them dirty again.   
_it should have been you down there, you were the oldest, you were supposed to go first_  
Handwidth by handwidth the coffin disappeared into the dark.   
_you let him down all your life and you will let him down again_  
After the service was over, Reinhardt wandered away from the back of the cemetery past rows of overgrown graves until he reached the front. Stopping in front of the white marble monument of Jack’s grave, Reinhardt squinted up at the Strike-Commanders likeness and wondered where they went wrong. They had seemed so happy at their wedding.   
No matter. If they couldn’t continue to make the world a better place, he could try.   
His luggage was at the hotel, having sold his flat and given away what he couldn’t take with him. Reinhardt had never settled down properly anyway. How could he, without Ana?   
Tomorrow he would look for a way to get around. Maybe a trailer.   
Torbjörn had e-mailed him that one of his kids wanted to join Reinhardt. Brigitte. Nice kid, had always clung to Reinhardt when he had come to visit and demanded stories.   
_you wouldn’t want her to end up like you, nobody should ever end up like you_  
In the distance, the church bells tolled for the next funeral. Geneva was far from having buried all it’s dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, did I step on your feelings?  
> That's it, folks! As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave kudos,comments and feedback down below!


End file.
